Drinks by the Book: 2012

We like to spend cool autumn weekend afternoons in a comfy chair with a good book and a dram of whiskey. The only thing we enjoy more is when the book is about drinking. Fortunately, this fall there are a number of volumes you should add to your spirited library.

Whether you love Scotch, bourbon, rye or all three, you’ll find something of interest in William Dowd’s collection of articles and essays from top spirits experts, including Liquor.com advisory board member David Wondrich and contributor Charles MacLean.

There’s no denying Ernest Hemingway’s cocktail credentials, from his eponymous Daiquiri to the absinthe-based Death in the Afternoon. And now Philip Greene gives the famous author his due in this thorough study of the beverages served in his short stories and novels. To Have and Have Another comes out on November 6.

We don’t generally get excited about reference books, but we’ll make an exception for the second edition of the award-winning Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. This latest version, which will be released in November, has 1,400 entries, 300 of them new, on everything from molecular gastronomy to milk shakes.

Beer fans will want this oversized and glossy tome (pictured above), which will be available on October 2. It includes a brief history of brewing and then sudsy sections on regions around the globe, each with advice on what to order, detailed maps and a bit of local flavor.

Those are all fantastic books, but this article focuses on some more recently published tomes. Check out these previous stories for a few more of our spirited-literature suggestions: http://liquor.com/articles/holiday-gift-guide-books-for-the-drinker/, http://liquor.com/articles/drinks-by-the-book/ and http://liquor.com/articles/beach-reads-2012/.

Chad R.posted 3 years ago

What about Jason Wilson's book Boozehound? Or Kindred Spirits by Paul Pacult? Or Imbibe by David Wondrich? Have they been mentioned elsewhere and thus garnered no mention here today?